By Baron Ike
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the Saturday, November 26 Ondo State governorship poll, Eyitayo Jegede has been advised to head for the tribunal as his party on Monday, November 28 rejected the outcome of the election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)’s Chief Returning Officer, Abdul-GAniyu Ambali declared the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Rotimi Akeredolu winner of the poll.
But the PDP described the outcome of the exercise as a “charade and not the true reflection of the will of the people of Ondo State.”
Akeredolu got 244, 842 votes to defeat the PDP candidate, Jegede, who polled 150, 380 votes to place second in the race.
Spokesperson of the PDP, Dayo Adeyeye, said on Monday that the electoral body helped the APC to rig the election.
He said in a statement that INEC has “graduated from inconclusive Elections as seen in Kogi, Bayelsa, Osun, FCT, Imo, Nassarawa and some other previous By-Elections in the Country to ‘Advanced Election Rigging’, as in the case of Edo and Ondo States Gubernatorial Elections.”
Adeyeye said: “It is common knowledge that the APC Agents openly bought votes of the electorate in the full glare of security operatives who did nothing to prevent such dastardly violation of the Electoral Law.
“It is not surprising that the electorate in Ondo State became so vulnerable to the corruptive influence of the APC because of the hash economic situation in the Country inflicted on Nigerians by the APC Administration which have indeed made all Nigerians virtually beggars in their own Country.”
Adeyeye said PDP had persistently called for the postponement of the Election before Saturday, for at least two weeks to enable the Party Campaign and prepare properly for the Election following the setback orchestrated by “Justice Okon Abang and other party irresponsible members who allowed themselves to be used to destroy the chances of the PDP in the election.
His words: “The actions of INEC in collaboration with the APC led Administration left us no time to campaign and sell our Candidate and Party Manifesto to the electorates in Ondo State.
“Our persistent call for the postponement of the Election which was backed and supported by more than 20 other political parties were all rejected by INEC which were acting the script of the APC.
“It was a carefully planned and well-orchestrated strategy to rig the Election well in advance by preventing the PDP from planning and campaigning for the Election. The APC has hereby introduced a new formula of rigging Election in Nigeria.
“In view of the fact that the Election was blatantly manipulated from the beginning to the end to favour the APC, we vehemently reject the results of the November 26, 2016 Gubernatorial Election in Ondo State.
“We have instructed our candidate and the Ondo State Chapter of our Party to proceed to the Tribunal to challenge the Outcome of the Election.
“We call on the Judiciary to redeem Nigeria’s image on this matter as we request for the total Cancellation of the Election in Ondo State.”
Meanwhile, candidate of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in the election, Olusola Oke, also on Monday congratulated Akeredolu, even though he decried the “heavy monetization” of the election byb APC and PDP.
Oke came third with 126, 889 votes, and won in two local government areas – Ilaje and Okitipupa.
A statement Oke signed inn Akure on Monday, commended both INEC and security agents deployed to the state for their fairness in the handling of their duties, a departure from the position taken by the PDP.
Oke said: “In the last seven years, the policy direction of the government of the day (in Ondo State) has resulted in the growth and circulation of poverty to our people.
“The resultant effect is the debilitating poverty that had made the people so vulnerable.
“Therefore, trading away dignity in the face of excruciating hunger during electioneering process requires little or no considerations for morals and values that defined us as a people.
“Offer of money for votes is worse than looting the government treasury. Apart from compromising the dignity of the people, it provides a fertile training ground for future looters of government treasury.
“The consequence of it is to render the anti-corruption fight a farce. There may be no economic matter more urgent, difficult to unravel and more sensitive to the pursuit of the average person in Ondo State than the current indignity foisted on the people by poverty orchestrated by maladministration and priority misplacement by the current administration.”
He said he hoped expressed Akeredolu would address the problem of poverty in the state.